I've just been reading up on the storms of late in the western isles, and it suddenly occurred to me; how easy is it to get a handyman, or repair person, in to fix things when they go wrong? Roofs especially I can imagine to be problematic(?), especially after storms. But what happens if there is a big storm, and a lot of people require repairs at the same time?
The same for plumbers and electricians; are there many on the islands, and can they be easily called on to do emergency repairs?
Sunday, 27 November 2011
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Buying a house
My last question for a while - and thank you for the responses so far.
Are there any estate agents in the Outer Hebrides apart from Anderson Banks? Also - any tips on buying a house, or looking for one?
(Okay, that's two questions!)
Thank you
Are there any estate agents in the Outer Hebrides apart from Anderson Banks? Also - any tips on buying a house, or looking for one?
(Okay, that's two questions!)
Thank you
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Post Office
A quick question, but what is the postal service like in the Western Isles. Is it efficient, friendly, flexible? Do items take significantly longer to arrive?
Saturday, 19 November 2011
The price of milk
Can I ask what the price of milk is, if you buy it in a supermarket or a shop in the Western Isles?
That may seem like a mundane measure, but it's often a better one for calibrating the excess that is charged for offshore produce, as milk is a universal need and also a perishable food.
That may seem like a mundane measure, but it's often a better one for calibrating the excess that is charged for offshore produce, as milk is a universal need and also a perishable food.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Strange behaviour online
I haven't posted for a week, and it has been interesting to watch the blog. The blog postings about Berneray have received many views, while the one about Barra and Vatersay - which has a much larger population - has received only a small fraction in comparison.
Similarly, I've had several comments about Berneray that I've been unable to publish, as they are clearly in slander or libel territory. About Barra? Nothing.
I wonder why this is? I gather that most people on Berneray have Internet access, and many use it daily. Is, perhaps, the difference due to the low take-up of broadband and the Internet on Barra and Vatersay? Are Berneray people more attuned to finding information, or "debating" online? Though many of the comments that have hit this blog that I've rejected couldn't really be called "debate", to be honest.
Similarly, I've had several comments about Berneray that I've been unable to publish, as they are clearly in slander or libel territory. About Barra? Nothing.
I wonder why this is? I gather that most people on Berneray have Internet access, and many use it daily. Is, perhaps, the difference due to the low take-up of broadband and the Internet on Barra and Vatersay? Are Berneray people more attuned to finding information, or "debating" online? Though many of the comments that have hit this blog that I've rejected couldn't really be called "debate", to be honest.
Monday, 7 November 2011
Barra and Vatersay
Barra is a spectacular island. We took the ferry from Oban, a small but busy town on the mainland, and spent several hours passing through and by some spectacular scenery. At one point, a school of dolphins or purpoises followed the Caledonian MacBrayne ship in parallel with us. A magical, albeit long, trip.
The first view of Castlebay: perhaps not so nice. It doesn't, on the approach, look that pretty. But looks can be deceptive, and several wanderings around the centre of the town soon formed an attachment with it.
Our bed and breakfast, a few minutes from the ferry terminal, was warm and friendly. We were greeted with an expansive tray of tea, biscuits, cookies and cake. Genuine hospitality, and warm too. Immediately, we noticed that the accents here were much different to those in Lewis and Harris, having a more distinctly Irish lilt to them; or perhaps that's just the people we met.
We spent several days on the beaches, and exploring the island as well as Vatersay. And, my God - the beaches. Even in the rest of the Western Isles, I have never seen beaches so ... perfect ... as the ones on Barra and Vatersay. The larger of the two islands being circular, it was easy to get around on the bus and walk on every beach. Every beautiful beach. Vatersay was a bit of a hike, across a causeway and round bendy single track roads for several miles, until we came to a narrow stretch of island with a brilliant beach on either side. Which is where we stayed, and picnicked, for the day. One other thing - Vatersay appears to be a place for naturists as we saw not one, but two, couples run naked into the sea. Odd, and the water looked cold. But each to their own.
On the top of the island, and a little to the east, you can see the Uists. There was some debate and confusion about whether Barra was part of the Uists or not, but the majority of people thought not. Perhaps, as locals, not surprising. It's at that location on Barra that we saw a plane land. On the beach. And this is how people "commute" between Barra and the mainland. Seriously. Apparently the local member of parliament lives on the island, and when he's not in Westminster sticking it up 'em, he's on his farm (croft, here) tending his sheep. I feel I must look up his travel expenses at some point.
Places to eat and drink. Outside of Castlebay, these are few and far between, though in Castlebay itself there's a surprisingly large number of options if you explore a bit; certainly enough to provide variety for a week or two. The bar talk was friendly to obviously English mainland tourists like us. I mentioned access to the Internet and broadband at this point, which caused a roar of somewhat cynical laughter from the bar tender and the customers. It appears that Barra would be at the end of the chain of wifi relay signal masts, of the notoriously unreliable system I've heard about on other trips (and other people have now commented on, on here). There is little, possibly no, faith that the system will work in Barra, and people were hanging on to BT or someone else upgrading the exchanges.
Would I live here? The beaches are the best I've seen in the Western Isles, and I've seen quite a few now. The people seem more relaxed, and less money-oriented, than those further north. The community seems more at peace with itself than islands such as Berneray. I didn't have any English-oriented hassle. So it's tempting.
But the communications seem extreme, possibly a bit too extreme for me. The five hour ferry ride, to end up in Oban. The flights, in a tiny plane that must surely be subject to the weather. And the Internet looks like it'll be unreliable dial-up or nothing for several, or many, years to come. Barra is isolated, more so than the other islands in the Western Isles; perhaps that's why there is such a strong sense of community there.
The first view of Castlebay: perhaps not so nice. It doesn't, on the approach, look that pretty. But looks can be deceptive, and several wanderings around the centre of the town soon formed an attachment with it.
Our bed and breakfast, a few minutes from the ferry terminal, was warm and friendly. We were greeted with an expansive tray of tea, biscuits, cookies and cake. Genuine hospitality, and warm too. Immediately, we noticed that the accents here were much different to those in Lewis and Harris, having a more distinctly Irish lilt to them; or perhaps that's just the people we met.
We spent several days on the beaches, and exploring the island as well as Vatersay. And, my God - the beaches. Even in the rest of the Western Isles, I have never seen beaches so ... perfect ... as the ones on Barra and Vatersay. The larger of the two islands being circular, it was easy to get around on the bus and walk on every beach. Every beautiful beach. Vatersay was a bit of a hike, across a causeway and round bendy single track roads for several miles, until we came to a narrow stretch of island with a brilliant beach on either side. Which is where we stayed, and picnicked, for the day. One other thing - Vatersay appears to be a place for naturists as we saw not one, but two, couples run naked into the sea. Odd, and the water looked cold. But each to their own.
On the top of the island, and a little to the east, you can see the Uists. There was some debate and confusion about whether Barra was part of the Uists or not, but the majority of people thought not. Perhaps, as locals, not surprising. It's at that location on Barra that we saw a plane land. On the beach. And this is how people "commute" between Barra and the mainland. Seriously. Apparently the local member of parliament lives on the island, and when he's not in Westminster sticking it up 'em, he's on his farm (croft, here) tending his sheep. I feel I must look up his travel expenses at some point.
Places to eat and drink. Outside of Castlebay, these are few and far between, though in Castlebay itself there's a surprisingly large number of options if you explore a bit; certainly enough to provide variety for a week or two. The bar talk was friendly to obviously English mainland tourists like us. I mentioned access to the Internet and broadband at this point, which caused a roar of somewhat cynical laughter from the bar tender and the customers. It appears that Barra would be at the end of the chain of wifi relay signal masts, of the notoriously unreliable system I've heard about on other trips (and other people have now commented on, on here). There is little, possibly no, faith that the system will work in Barra, and people were hanging on to BT or someone else upgrading the exchanges.
Would I live here? The beaches are the best I've seen in the Western Isles, and I've seen quite a few now. The people seem more relaxed, and less money-oriented, than those further north. The community seems more at peace with itself than islands such as Berneray. I didn't have any English-oriented hassle. So it's tempting.
But the communications seem extreme, possibly a bit too extreme for me. The five hour ferry ride, to end up in Oban. The flights, in a tiny plane that must surely be subject to the weather. And the Internet looks like it'll be unreliable dial-up or nothing for several, or many, years to come. Barra is isolated, more so than the other islands in the Western Isles; perhaps that's why there is such a strong sense of community there.
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Comments so far
I think I may have deleted some comments that were not yet published. My apologies. I have comments set to be approved first, as I was advised this is necessary when running a blog concerning the Western Isles. Unfortunately, blogging is not as intuitive as I thought it would be.
If your comment does not appear here in a reasonable time, then please can you retype it? Again, I apologise for my technical and internet incompetence.
However, I've also had three comments which I've rejected, which I guess show that moderating comments makes sense.
One of these was from someone upset by the notion of someone from England moving to the Western Isles, and contained a lot of tedious unpleasantries. There's been enough research undertaken on racism - which is what the comment was - to show that this is often a manifestation of inadequacies in a persons life. Relationships, social skills, sexual fulfillment or something else. I briefly sympathised with the author for whatever was the deficiency making his life unhappy, then deleted his comment.
Two other comments made serious allegations against named residents of Berneray, and appeared to be from other residents of that island. I'm simply not interested in my blog becoming some kind of online trolling forum for people to make slanderous or libelous comments about each other, while hiding behind their computer screens. Take that nonsense into the playground, where it belongs.
As I have said before, if you don't like my commenting policy, then go and start your own blog.
If your comment does not appear here in a reasonable time, then please can you retype it? Again, I apologise for my technical and internet incompetence.
However, I've also had three comments which I've rejected, which I guess show that moderating comments makes sense.
One of these was from someone upset by the notion of someone from England moving to the Western Isles, and contained a lot of tedious unpleasantries. There's been enough research undertaken on racism - which is what the comment was - to show that this is often a manifestation of inadequacies in a persons life. Relationships, social skills, sexual fulfillment or something else. I briefly sympathised with the author for whatever was the deficiency making his life unhappy, then deleted his comment.
Two other comments made serious allegations against named residents of Berneray, and appeared to be from other residents of that island. I'm simply not interested in my blog becoming some kind of online trolling forum for people to make slanderous or libelous comments about each other, while hiding behind their computer screens. Take that nonsense into the playground, where it belongs.
As I have said before, if you don't like my commenting policy, then go and start your own blog.
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